Renowned Iranian journalist and scholar Esfandiari was forced to leave the country and settled in the U.S. during the 1979 revolution. Over the years, she returned to visit family members, but during a 2006 visit she was told by officials that she was under investigation and could not leave the country. She later discovered that the Intelligence Ministry believed her scholarly work at the Woodrow Wilson Center was a cover by the U.S. government to overthrow the Iranian regime. What ensued was a Kafkaesque journey through the paranoid and repressive Iranian bureaucracy that left Esfandiari a prisoner for eight months. She describes her ordeal as a political prisoner in Evin, Iran’s most notorious prison, and offers a candid view of Iran's current and complex relationship with the U.S.